This blog details some of my thoughts and aspirations relating to application packaging, compatibility and the ongoing management of applications on desktop, server and cloud platforms. I have a strong focus on the Windows desktop space, but as we progress into more and more cloud based application management, we will definitely see more posts on getting applications working
in the cloud.

Friday, 25 May 2012

Microsoft Map: Getting Ready for Windows 8

I was notified a little while ago that the latest version of the Microsoft MAP tool-kit is now available for download.

The Microsoft MAP toolkit is very much like the Microsoft Application Compatibility Tool-kit (ACT) that is free and is designed to assist with the migration from one platform to another.

Referencing from the Microsoft website;

"The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is a FREE, agentless tool designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments."

With the following key features:

Inventories your infrastructure to assess and verify what is present in your existing environment to best determine hardware and software readiness for migration—for example, locating and reporting on instances of legacy operating systems such as the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating system.

One of the key features about the Microsoft MAP toolkit, is that it is agent-less. MAP uses collectors to "go out and retrieve information from remote machines and environments". Some of the Collectors include;

Here is a quick snap-shot from Microsoft documentation on the available Collector technologies for this latest version of MAP;

There are a number of issues that you may encounter with MAP and the use of some of these Collector approaches including;

Firewall issues

Network Impact and Security

Remote Registry Access and Configuration

Remote Sites and machines may not be available

Administrative Issues on the Remote Computer

SQL Server Security Configuration may prevent remote access

Once you have collected data from your environment, Microsoft MAP provides some reports relating migrating your environment to either Windows 7/8 or a virtualized environment. Some of these reports include;

Windows 7 and 8 Readiness Assessment

Microsoft Office 2010 Assessment

Windows Server 2012 Readiness

Office 365 Readiness

Software Usage Tracking

I will have a little play with MAP over the coming few weeks and will report back on our thoughts. In the mean-time you may want to have a look at the comprehensive asset management offering from Quest - the ScriptLogic Asset Manager